Remove or reduce Mac OS after Windows install

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Level 1

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Remove or reduce Mac OS after Windows install

This may be an odd question, but first a little background.

I bought the 2011 MacBook Air as my first introduction into the world of Macs and thought it would also fulfil the occasional work duties due to the promises of how easy it is to integrate a Mac into a PC world since MS Office is available on both platforms. For personal use Mac OS has been a breath of fresh air, intuitive gesture support makes browsing and editing photos fun again as well as playing around with using it as a media server, and Keynote has taken over for my presentation needs.

However working as an accountant means MS Excel, Outlook & Sage are central to my working day and due to various incompatibilities in the office, such as Mail & Outlook 2011 failing to work with our office's 2003 exchange server for one, and MS Excel 2011 being very much the poor cousin to Excel 2010 I ended up setting aside a 64Gb (of 256Gb) partition via Bootcamp to run Windows 7.

Little did I expect how good a Windows PC the MacBook Air makes! Maybe it's the SSD drive but this thing easily lives up to the top of the range i7 HP desktops we use in the office so rather than using the Windows partition for the odd bit of remote working which was the plan two years ago, it is now my main work computer. In fact after I added a couple of Displaylonk adapters I now have a four screen set up (3 x 22" 1080p Dell monitors plus laptop screen) which is the envy of the office.

So, I've since replaced my personal Mac needs with a quad core Mac Mini and haven't booted into Mac OS on the laptop for months and as you can probably guess but that 64Gb is running out quite fast.

I know I can't simply resize the partitions without causing possibly major future headaches and all this MBR/GPT/EFI stuff is unfortunately a little over my head so don't want to do anything crazy (like formatting the Mac OS partition which I've considered) without first getting some advice.

I don't really fancy wiping out the Bootcamp installation and starting again if at all possible, and don't mind keeping Mac OS around but I know that it is highly unlikely that I'll ever need it again on my Air and would probably jump for the MacBook Pro if I ever did need a portable Mac again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :-).

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2011)

Posted on Mar 2, 2014 9:37 AM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 2, 2014 9:57 AM in response to Sniper 007

You can try camptune, lots of success stories, but you should backup your data because if something goes wonky, then as you have noticed by now, your solutions will be either to dive into the MBR/GPT world or reformat your machine completely.

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Answer 2

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 2, 2014 9:59 AM in response to Sniper 007

Or, some people do completely purge OSX and only have Windows on the drive. If you want that route (saves you likely the 10-15gb you should reserve for OSX), I would absolutely do a fresh backup and reinstall Windows completely.

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Answer 3

Number88

Level 3

806 points

Mar 2, 2014 10:06 AM in response to Sniper 007

I might be tempted to make a partition image of your Bootcamp partition with something like Clonezilla Live, verifying the image is restorable, which is an option in Clonezilla Live.

Then you could remove the Windows system using Bootcamp Assistant's "remove Windows" option.

After a reboot you can then re-open Bootcamp Assistant and re-install Windows in a larger partition.

Then you can replace your new Windows system with the backup image you made with Clonezilla Live.

Everything should go just peachy 🙂 (though Clonezilla Live can be a little scary to use at first).

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Answer 4

Sniper 007 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 3, 2014 8:37 AM in response to turbostar

Thanks guys, so I guess that means formatting the Mac partition from inside Windows definitely isn't a simple option then.

So... this leaves me with a couple more questions I'm afraid.

Firstly, I've read that Camptune can cause issues later down the road as it doesn't update the partition tables fully (or something?) which can lead to the possibility of losing Bootcamp later on - but that may only be when updating OSX, which is something I don't really plan on doing so may not be an issue for me?

and Secondly, how easy is it to completely purge OSX?

I can't risk losing access to Windows for any length of time as my work life has become ridiculously hectic lately. So I can't really risk trying this until I have had chance to set up another PC as back up just in case something goes wrong. However with space rapidly becoming a premium on the Windows side it is a case of time is running out.

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Answer 5

Sniper 007 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 3, 2014 8:56 AM in response to Number88

Thanks Number88.

I always thought I was fairly computer literate but reading through sites and forums like this remind me of how much I don't know. Give me Excel and I can make it dance for me, but looking behind the curtain at the workings of an OS and I feel like everyone is speaking another language.

I'll have a look at that as an option, although when you say a little scary to use at first I can see why!

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Answer 6

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 3, 2014 8:59 AM in response to Sniper 007

You won't like my solution but eBay your current laptop and get an air with 128gb. Based on what you wrote - Windows is critical and space ism running out - both camp tune and purging OSX have risks, while rare, could creep up and give you a 2 day project to fix. That 64g drive is very limiting, with 128g you wouldn't have to choose between the lesser of evils.

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Answer 7

Number88

Level 3

806 points

Mar 3, 2014 9:04 AM in response to Sniper 007

Camptune X can work great, as others will confirm. It's just that if it fails to complete the job (as can happen on occasion) it can make a real mess. It rendered Windows, OSX and recovery HD unbootable on my rMBP.

I had to use internet recovery to get my system back.

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Answer 8

Sniper 007 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 5, 2014 1:29 AM in response to turbostar

You're right that I don't really like that solution. The problem would be that I'd have to buy the new Air first set it up to make sure everything worked before I could think of selling this one. Plus going to 128Gb when I have 170Gb+ just waiting to be used on this laptop feels like a waste?

What would happen if I went into Windows and formatted the D: drive (173Gb OSX). I assume getting the space back isn't quite as easy as that and there's something hidden in that partition that Windows also needs to enable it to boot?

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Answer 9

Csound1

Level 9

60,093 points

Mar 5, 2014 2:50 AM in response to turbostar

turbostar wrote:

Or, some people do completely purge OSX and only have Windows on the drive. If you want that route (saves you likely the 10-15gb you should reserve for OSX), I would absolutely do a fresh backup and reinstall Windows completely.

How would you deal with firmware updates required for your Mac without OSX, what's the method you suggest?

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Answer 10

Sniper 007 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 5, 2014 2:55 AM in response to Csound1

My laptop is almost three years old, I doubt there would be any further updates? Although since I've not used OSX for probably 9 months and it hasn't been an issue why would it be a problem now?

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Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

60,093 points

Mar 5, 2014 2:58 AM in response to Sniper 007

Sniper 007 wrote:

My laptop is almost three years old, I doubt there would be any further updates?

Who knows, there may or may not be.

Can I assume that you made no provision for machine firmware updates then.

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Answer 12

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 5, 2014 3:24 AM in response to Csound1

Sorry, I misread your post. So you have a 256gb drive with 64g partitioned for Windows. This makes the solution easy, do it on my weekend when you don't need to work but backup your files and clean reinstall both OSX and Windows. If you never use OSX, give it 30gb leaving +200gb for Windows.

I thought you had one of the earlier models with only a 64gb drive in total. That's why I recommended purging OSX entirely since 30gb for OSX on a 64gb drive is a huge allocation for an OS that you do not use.

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Answer 13

Csound1

Level 9

60,093 points

Mar 5, 2014 3:28 AM in response to turbostar

turbostar wrote:

Sorry, I misread your post

So it would seem,

So you have a 256gb drive with 64g partitioned for Windows.

No I don't,

I thought you had one of the earlier models with only a 64gb drive in total. That's why I recommended purging OSX entirely since 30gb for OSX on a 64gb drive is a huge allocation for an OS that you do not use.

You obviously have no idea who you replied to, but you replied to the wrong person.

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Answer 14

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,118 points

Mar 5, 2014 3:42 AM in response to Sniper 007

You can install Windows on that mac without even having MacOSX at all, only Windows !

If you do not want to go so far, make a new Windows installation in a new partition: delete the old Windows partition with Bootcamp, then make a large partition with Bootcamp (as large as possible, leave 30GB for OSX), install Windows, and set the Windows partition as StartupDisk.

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Answer 15

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 5, 2014 3:49 AM in response to Csound1

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, reading comprehension should let you know that my reply was meant for the only other person on this thread, the OP.

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